You may be totally committed to your topic. But what does the audience care? Here's how to turn your passion into an engaging speech.

There's an old Irish proverb that says: "You can't plow a field by turning it over in your mind."

I think of that maxim sometimes. Usually, it's when I'm coaching a speaker—as I did recently—whose is passionate, but only on paper, as it were. Do you embody that kind of limited commitment? If an audience doesn't see and hear your commitment to your topic as you're speaking, how are you going to get them to believe in it as strongly as you do?

Want to be a truly dynamic speaker? Discover 101 tips for presentation success in my book, How to Give a Speech. Click on image below to learn more!

Your speech's content, like data, can only accomplish so much. Basically, it conveys information wonderfully. The rest of it—from the immediacy of your message, to its benefit for listeners, to the meaning of the information you're conveying—is solidly your territory. So how can you turn the passion you feel into a powerful speech so everyone else "gets it"?

Just Talk to Us . . . and Stop Trying to Be Perfect

There's a fault concerning public speaking known as "perfectionizing." It means attempting to create a beautifully polished presentation that's perfect in every respect.

This is due partly to spending time in the manuscript-laden world of university and then company research. You may be in danger, you see, of having created a lovely piece of literature. But the public speaking realm is more boxing ring than literary salon. And your job is to step inside the ropes and mix it up.   

Can you achieve both: great material combined with an effective performance? You can if you read my free article: "Great Speaking? — It's About Performance Over Content!"

Time to Get Your Head Out of the Clouds

Writing a perfect speech is useless for three reasons: 1) You probably can't do it unless you're an extraordinary speech writer; 2) You'll be likely to get enmeshed in the rhythms of writing, which are different from those of speaking, and 3) It keeps your attention on your script rather than where it needs to be: on your listeners and their response to what you're saying. 

Audiences don't care about beautifully crafted pieces of rhetoric. They do care about speakers who can connect with them and who share their interests and values. The truth is, they'd rather be punched in the gut than have their heads gently stroked, because that hits them where they live. So they want you to be more Ali than Hemingway. 

Learn the Actor's Skills of Externalizing What You Feel

Once you commit to speaking with impact rather than oratory, it's time to learn how to get it all across the footlights.

Because here's the thing my clients hear me say often: It's never a question of having passion, and even a fierce desire to share it with listeners. It always comes down to showing it in performance. Audiences aren't mind readers, and most of them don't know the Vulcan mind-meld. If you don't show it, they won't know it.

You have to take a page from the actor's art, for actors spend their entire careers learning how to effectively externalize what they are feeling. So, a quick study guide to learning how to command a stage:

• Turn your energy around: The self-conscious or perfectionizing speaker thinks in terms of his or her own performance. But the audience must be the center of your universe as it is for the actor—it's the sun around which you revolve. The simple act of turning your energy outward will start the process of having more of a relationship with your listeners than with your manuscript. This thinking is central to my book, named in 2019 as "One Of the 100 Best Confidence Books Of All Time," Fearless Speaking. Get your copy today!

• Think in terms of physical expression: Most of us are guilty of Talking Head Syndrome, so in terms of effective public speaking there's really too much furniture upstairs. Since audience members don't have a crystal ball, they need you to physically express what you're saying. That's why you have a body as a public speaker! Your tools: the body language of posture, stance, and gestures; facial expressions (and smiles); eye contact; and vocal dynamics. When you express what you're saying physically, it takes your talk onto an entirely different plane. That's where memorability often hangs out. 

Here's my Body Language Rules: 12 Ways To Be a More Powerful Speaker. Get the Free White Paper today! Get your body into the act!

• Pay attention to pace and the shape of your speech: Nothing is worse than an otherwise good talk that unfurls in an unvarying pace on a featureless plateau. Leadership in public speaking means delivering a speech exactly the way you intend to: at your pace, comfortable for you and sufficient for your audience to relax and absorb what you say. Consider as well the shape of your speech: Which segments are the most powerful, and which moments are inherently dramatic? The parts of your speech are not equal; you should know how to play up the major sections, and downplay the others. Here's more on crafting great presentations: Six Rules of Effective Public Speaking. 
• Use your performance space: The space you speak in—whether it's a convention stage or a few feet at the end of a conference table—is yours to command. This too is an aspect of leadership in public speaking. We expect you to move: to use the space itself to emphasize things you're saying. Don't prowl or wander; move with a purpose tied to what you're trying to achieve from moment to moment. Even a lectern shouldn't stop you from conveying your passion in a powerful way. Use the podium to refer to your notes or manuscript if you must. But take the opportunities to come out from behind it. You might be amazed at how it makes your speech come to life. Us, too.

You should follow me on Twitter here.

Gary Genard is an actor, author, and expert in public speaking and overcoming speaking fear. His company, The Genard Method offers live 1:1 Zoom executive coaching  and corporate group training worldwide. In 2022 for the ninth consecutive year, Gary has been ranked by Global Gurus as One of the World’s Top 30 Communication Professionals. He is the author of the Amazon Best-Seller How to Give a Speech. His second book, Fearless Speaking, was named in 2019 as "One of the 100 Best Confidence Books of All Time." His handbook for presenting in videoconferences, Speaking Virtually offers strategies and tools for developing virtual presence in online meetings. His latest book is Speak for Leadership: An Executive Speech Coach's Secrets for Developing Leadership Presence. Contact Gary here. 

Photo credit: Chris F on pexels.com